Arts and Crafts
by poeticgrace
Summary: Kelly sees the potential in a broken mirror and in Ryan. One Shot.


It started with a mirror. An old cracked mirror that she insisted on having when she spotted as they drove back to her apartment after a night out with some of his old friends from business schools, the same ones who only started talking to him again after he got his one-year poker chip from AA. Ryan was cruising along in his mom's Prius when she started screeching and begging for him to do a U-turn in the middle of the busy intersection. The last time she had hollered like a banshee, he had ended up spending three hours and $200 he didn't really have on a vet bill at the Scranton Animal Hospital. Kelly was all about saving things. He should know, she had saved him.

"Isn't it beautiful?" she mused softly as she bent at the curb, running her perfectly polished fingers over the broken glass as if it was that designer bag she had not-so-nonchalantly pointed out to him last week while they were at the Steamtown Mall. Ryan watched her as she inspected the surface and then the frame. "Ryan, we have to get this."

"Kel, it's broken," he pointed out uselessly, all the while pulling the spare blanket from his mom's emergency kit to wrap it in. He knew as soon as he parked the car that they were going home with that atrocity, and Kelly would spend the weekend dragging him around to various craft and hardwood stores until she had all the supplies to fix it. "Here, at least stop running her hands over it. You're going to cut your hand. We have no idea where that thing came from. You could get an infection."

"Oh, Ryan," she giggled, shaking her head at him as if he was a silly little boy who didn't understand anything. She moved to the side long enough to let him wrap the mirror carefully in the fleece blanket. "Be careful, I don't want you to break it anymore."

Ryan rolled his eyes as she lifted the trunk lid so that he could tuck it away safely. She hadn't even mentioned the fact that he could get cut. No, she was more concerned with her treasure, her latest project in a growing list of curbside finds that she was repairing for her new apartment. Ryan figured that she spent less on supplies than if he had to buy her one new from a department store, so he did his best not to complain all that much. Besides, it was kind of fun to watch her at her kitchen table, bent over intently while she spackled this or glued that.

"Won't this look just perfect in the entryway?"she asked, not really waiting for an answer before diving into bag so that she could scribble her shopping list of supplies down. She pretty much quit paying attention to him for the rest of the drive back to her place and even until they were back upstairs. It was only when she noticed that he was empty handed that she even acknowledged him again. "Ryan, can you run back downstairs and get the mirror? I need to do measurements for the frame. And I want to see what kind of hanger is on it. We might need to replace that, too."

He started to complain until she looked up at him with hooded eyes that promised it would be in his very best interest to comply with her simple request. It was a lot easier than ordering complex drinks or trying to remember convoluted plotlines from trashy reality shows, which had been mandatory in the old days. Instead, he nodded resolutely and brushed a kiss over her cheek before heading back out into the cold February night. By the time he had returned, Kelly had already lost most of her clothes and quickly made good on her promise to him.

It was a few days later that Kelly brought the mirror up again. It was early Saturday morning, and she was up before the alarm to get herself ready for the day. She shook Ryan awake after a few times of hitting snooze, telling him to get in the shower so that they could start their errands. Ryan tried to pull her into bed, hoping for a morning quickie, but was stopped short with a chaste kiss before she headed toward the kitchen to start the coffee. At least he had that to look forward to this morning.

An hour later, Kelly handed over the keys to her car as they made their way to the parking lot. She balanced two cups of freshly brewed coffee in one hand and her shopping list in the other. Ryan half listened as she rattled off the list of places they needed to go, starting with the lumber yard on Miller that she had found last month. After a little flirting with the guy behind the counter, she had worked out a deal to get scraps that no one else could use for free. Ryan would have been a little angry had he not been so proud that she could harness her feminine evil for good.

"I really hope Derek is working so I can get pieces for the frame," she sighed as he navigated the car toward the shop. "I don't need much, just a few pieces. I think if I sand and glue them myself, I might end up with something pretty decent. He had some nicer hardwood scraps the last time. It'd be great if I could get something other than soft pine."

Ryan glanced at her momentarily and wondered where his girlfriend was. It was still strange to hear her talk so domestically about anything other than having babies. "That's kinda hot, hearig you talk about wood," he commented, causing a pretty little blush to spread across her round cheeks. Ryan leaned across the seat when he pulled up to a red light to kiss her briefly. "And I think it's really hot that you're so into being Miss Fix-It now. It reminds me how good you are with your hands."

Kelly laughed and shook her head as Ryan made a quick turn into the parking lot. After promising to hurry, Kelly sprinted across the yard toward the little office while Ryan was left to listen to his favorite program on the local public radio station. He was just starting to doze off when she returned with four slim slabs of light red-brown wood. She looked quite proud of her found as she sat it in the floorboard behind her.

"I can't believe I got some hard maple," she said cheerfully before buckling her seatbelt. "I've never worked with it before. It's kind of tough to work with, not your usual stuff for framing. It's heavy, really dense, but beautiful when it's sanded the right way. I think with a little TLC, I'll be able to bring out its natural shine."

"Uh, sounds great?" he offered with a smile before asking for their next destination. Kelly directed him to a small hardware store just off downtown. He had been there a few times. "What are we picking up there?"

"Wire to replace the back hanging and something for waterproofing," she told him. "I think I still have some sandpaper left over from the little bench I redid for Pam and Jim. I think it'll look great in the baby's room. Pam seemed thrilled with it. I think Jim was a little surprised, though."

The entire office had been surprised when she had shown up with the miniature bench. Kelly had found it outside an old daycare center a few blocks from Dunder Mifflin and had made Ryan fifteen minutes late for an AA meeting just so that she could pick it up. She had spent three weeks on that project, stripping the entire piece and then refinishing it with a matte white paint and pale yellow velvet seat. She had stenciled little butterflies and flowers on each side of the bench along with Cecelia's name in script letters. It had been a big undertaking, and Kelly had worked day and night until it was perfect.

Over the next few hours, Ryan took Kelly to the hardware store, over a few blocks to get replacement glass, across town to pick up some velvet to replace the mirror's backing and finally back to the hardware store to get some sandpaper just in case. He was exhausted by the time they got home, while Kelly was just getting started. She instantly pulled her hair back and set to work at the kitchen table with her sandpaper. By the time he woke up from his nap, she had already interwoven pieces of the old frame with pieces of the new frame together in a mold she'd built and set them in glue. In the mean time, she had taken the old backing and was working on recovering it with the dark blue velvet she had matched because she thought it matched his eyes.

"What you working on over there?" he asked from his place on the couch, sitting up just enough to watch her focused so intently on stapling the fabric in the right places.

"Our mirror," she replied. Each project was always theirs, even if she did almost all the work. "I really think you'll like it once we get it hung."

That was the part that she always let him do, the finishing touches. He had been the one to put the ribbon on the bench before giving it to Pam and Jim. He had attached the new handle to the drawer in the side table she had refinished for his side of the bed. He had put the last piece of the tile into the mosaic coasters she had made for the living room.

"Alright, I think I just have to wait for the frame to set before I can do anything else," she declared as she came into the living room. She collapsed on the couch next to Ryan, putting her head on his shoulder for a moment and allowing her eyes to droop closed. "Thanks for running me all over town today."

"No problem," he replied because it had been her car, her gas and her money that had paid for their lunch. "Besides, I like getting to watch you work. You really are good at it, Kel." Kelly smiled and snuggled closer to him. Ryan slipped his arm around her back and pulled her closer. "I mean it, Kel. You're great at putting things back together."

She caught what he meant them and shook her head. "I didn't put you back together, Ryan." It was quiet moments like those, the kind that only came when the cameras were off and the doors were closed, that she saw the man that Ryan really was. This was the guy that kept her coming back. This was the one that made her feel like it was all worth it. "I was just there to hand you some glue and spackle."

He kissed her then, good and fully, because words just couldn't do justice to how she made him feel. She pulled away with a knowing smile and didn't offer anything else other than a contented sigh. They fell into an easy nap and eventually woke back up. Ryan followed Kelly into the kitchen and helped her place the glass into the mirror frame. Once the back was secured to the back, she polished the glass while Ryan managed not to smash his finger while hammering a nail near the front door.

"It's not totally perfect," Kelly said once it hung on the wall, tilting her head as she inspected their reflection in her new mirror.

Ryan rested his chin on her shoulder and shrugged. "I don't know, I think it kind of works," he disagreed. "Maybe it's not what anyone else would see as perfect but it works here. I like it. It fits."

His blue eyes sparkled as he caught hers in the looking glass, bringing a beautiful smile to her face. "Yeah, it does," she agreed before turning around in his arms.

The mirror really was something. She had saved it from disaster, having complete faith that she could make it into something worth keeping. With a little love and work, she had transformed trash into treasure. It could have so easily been lost, something someone threw out and forgot about, but Kelly had always see the potential beneath the brokeness.


End file.
